Former Gov.Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.makes a compelling case for voter ID requirements, citing the millions of invalid names on registration records ("Voter ID laws uphold system's integrity," Feb. 26). But his conclusion, that this poor state of voter registration records is due to voter fraud, is incorrect.

If Mr. Ehrlich had done a more thorough investigation, he would have discovered that the situation is due almost entirely to a failure to purge records to account for persons who have died or moved away from the voting district. Time and again, we have been presented with evidence that actual voter fraud, that is citizens purporting to be someone else when appearing at the voting booth, has been virtually nonexistent in the U.S. for decades.

What the voter ID requirements represent, pure and simple, is an undemocratic attempt to disenfranchise legitimate poor and minority voters, many of whom simply are not registered to drive or have difficulty getting to a government office to obtain necessary papers. Shades of the poll tax, the last time in U.S. history when such shenanigans were attempted.